Scribe
by Axenome
Summary: A little kindness can go a long way- a childhood prank turns out for the best as a stranger finds it in his heart to reach out to an orphan. Fuinjutsu! Intelligent! Naruto. NaruAmi.
1. Prologue: Little Shop of Tags

**Disclaimer: Naruto isn't my sandbox, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto- this fic is just me and my bucket building yet another sandcastle in it. Fowders, Bewfs, and Smims borrowed shamelessly from the short story Everything's Eventual, written by Stephen King. I cry thee pardon, Sai King. **

* * *

_A few words, spoken..._

* * *

The six year old boy looked up with eyes too old for innocence, too lively for jaded, a strange paradoxical hopefulness in the face of repeated betrayal and neglect.

Another time, and another life, the naive question would go unanswered, those eyes gone unseen, but Takeru paused a moment, and in the wake of his weakness, felt the need to gloat to the Kyuubii child, if only a little bit. "It's a restraining seal," he answered. At the vacant look he received in response, he elaborated, "it will hold a living person in place, unable to voluntarily move from the neck down, save for autonomic muscles like the diaphragm or the heart." At the awed expression the child wore, while he wrinkled his brow in confusion at the word 'autonomic,' it was clear that the boy had goten the gist of the explanation. Unable to resist a demonstration of the wonders of sealing, he added, "It is a simple process involving..."

* * *

_A forgotten scolding that would never happen..._

* * *

Unryuu Takeru was a fuinjutsu scribe, and that was all. That was not to say that he wasn't a shinobi- just that he wasn't a very good one. One of the many lifer genin, whose disposition and overall skill sets just wasn't up to the necessary standards of chunin, he'd been a three month genin when the Kyuubii broke free six years ago. He'd seen an uncle and his eldest brother die that night, the blood of his brother splashing him as a massive, demonic eye fixed its gaze on him, an eternal split second of heart stopping terror, before it moved on.

Takeru knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was spared not through mercy, but because the demon found him so pathetic that it wasn't that it wasn't worth the flick of claw to kill him.

He'd had nightmares about that eye for five years. That eye was embedded in his heart, his soul, the very fibres of his existance were woven into that single, awful memory.

Like others, he had muttered and glared. Five minutes ago, when he saw the vandal in his shop, he remembered watching the rough, mischievous girl with hero worship so long ago, a girl who would six years ago without warning unleash the terror unexpectedly on Konoha. Seeing that boy, it was an awful moment of deja vu. Almost, he'd almost placed the restraining tag on the child without so much as a response, so that he could drag the little wretch to the Hokage tower, leave him there...

But he'd looked into those eyes, and hesitated, and felt the need to respond.

The sullen, resentful look of mischief had faded so quickly that it was hard to believe it had been there, and was replaced by that strange, paradoxical expression of cynicism and hope.

The boy stood motionless, staring at the tag with wonder.

Takeru had meant to take the boy to be dealt with as a miscreant should be, but now...

He didn't fully understand his own motives, but although his angered scowl didn't soften, Takeru put the tag back down on the counter instead.

The boy didn't run, and a brilliant smile lit across his face. Questions rained down on the lifer genin like a storm, and for a brief moment, he almost regretted changing his mind about using the tag on the boy. After forty seconds he grabbed the tag and popped it on the child's forehead anyway, cutting him off mid sentence. "You brat, I ought to hand you over to the ANBU."

Despite the paralysis, a light seemed to die in the chiuld's eyes, and Takeru felt a strange lurch in his stomach at this.

"But I won't... so long as you clean up the mess you made of my shop." Takeru paused. "I'll even answer a few of your questions, if you ask them one at a time. And you're going to work for me the rest of the day to pay for the damaged tags I can't sell any more."

The joy sprang back into the boy's eyes, and Takeru took off the tag.

* * *

**Axenome Presents: Scribe**

Prologue: Little Shop of Tags

* * *

Another time, another life, Naruto would receive a harsh scolding from the Hokage. It would be made abundantly clear to the child that the little slips of paper had been expensive, and that Naruto had no business touching them, as they represented a lot of hard work and effort that had been carelessly destroyed by his actions. Subconsciously, Naruto would extend the 'Do not touch' not only to tags such as these, an aversion that pranking with smoke tags in the academy would overcome, but also an aversion to many things involving writing and books, an aversion that the academy would NOT erase.

A more startling consequence of this unreported incident, is that Naruto, after being dismissed by an angry and very disappointed old man, would not be leaning up against an alley wall the next day huddled and crying, where a ten year old Ayame would bring him inside her father's ramen shop and give him a bowl of free ramen.

Naruto doesn't meet the Ichiraku family.

* * *

It started as a single day, Naruto zinging from one end of the shop to the other, collecting up all the paper tags, helping sort the mess, even eagerly sweeping up the shop afterwards as Takeru answered questions one at a time, talking for almost six hours straight. Takeru made it abundantly clear to the kid that any customers he got in that time came first, and to those customers' questioning looks he made it equally clear that Naruto's presence was for the express purpose of cleaning up the mess he'd made before, and working off the damages in labor. Their satisfied expressions, even people who he was sure had never actually met the child, left an unsettled feeling hovering at the back of his mind that he tried to ignore.

Finally, as he began closing shop, Naruto's stomach gurgled loudly. Takeru realized with a start that the boy hadn't eaten the whole time he'd been in the shop, since Takeru had returned from lunch to discover that the boy had somehow gotten inside and had strewn some five hundred organized tags across the shop like so much confetti.

After a moment, as Naruto froze in embarassment, Takeru said stiffly, "You should get back to the orphanage and get dinner."

Naruto's eyes averted. "I missed dinner," he answered. "When I missed dinner, I hafta wait for breakfast. I can't get special treatment if I'm late."

Takeru grunted. "Then go ahead and finish sweeping," he ordered, as he went in the back and up some stairs.

Naruto nodded, sweeping the dust and paper scraps into the dustpan like Takeru had shown him earlier, then taking them over to the trash can. Takeru noticed with further discomfort that aside from the earlier outburst from his stomach, the boy went on as though nothing was wrong- a fact that hinted that going without a meal was not an unfamiliar experience. Takeru turned and went up the stairs.

Meanwhile Naruto continued at his assigned task, the dustpan awkward in his hands, bits that spilled over the sides as he walked painstakingly swept up again with the singleminded determination and focus of a six year old who finally found something that gained someone's approval, and after several minutes had the floor of the shop and back room fairly clean.

"Mister?" Naruto called up the stairs in the back room, the broom and dustpan still in his hands.

At the top of the stairs, a light was on, so Naruto hesitantly, cautiously, started climbing.

The stairway led up to a kitchen, where Naruto found himself looking at a stern Takeru. The shop owner's eyes flickered to the almost forgotten pan and broom in Naruto's hands. "Those go in the shop downstairs. But never mind. If you're going to just come up here, you may as well have dinner with me."

Naruto blinked at him incomprehendingly, and with some impatience, Takeru took the broom and dustpan and set them against the wall, before taking Naruto's hand and nearly dragging him to the small table in the middle of the kitchen. A quick lift got Naruto into the lone chair, where a heavy book was already waiting to let him see over the table. A second plate was across the table, both of which were already filled with rice, pickled vegetables, and several thin fillets of teriyaki fish.

Naruto blinked owlishly at the plate in front of him, before he looked up at Takeru. "I already missed dinner."

Takeru shrugged gruffly. "You missed their dinner. You're just lucky I eat later than they do."

Naruto's grasp of chopsticks was shaky, like he barely knew how to use them, but aside from adjusting them in his hands a couple of times, Takeru didn't really interact with the child, instead eating his own meal in silence. He did, however, refill the boy's plate twice, being at least that close to a polite host. By the way the boy had eaten, he apparently hadn't had lunch either, a suggestion that made the unsettled feeling in the back of his mind redouble itself. Finally, though, Naruto had eaten enough.

"Mister?"

Takeru, washing the pans and dishes, grumbled, "My name is Unryuu Takeru. You may call me Unryuu-san, or Takeru-san, but 'Mister' is both rude and uncouth."

Naruto gulped nervously. "Um, T-Takeru-san?"

Takeru turned from his sink, a neutral expression on his face, to where Naruto sat at the table. "Yes?"

"Can I... if I sweep your shop again tomorrow, can I... come back?"

Takeru was startled. People never wanted to spend time with him outside of missions. He wasn't much of a people person. "I don't need the shop swept again. You already did that today." At the boy's crestfallen expression, he added, "But I need someone to clean up the ink spots in the drawing room and wash the brushes out. If you will do that, you may come back tomorrow."

Naruto's smile was like sunshine.

* * *

Takeru discovered a distressing fact the next day- Naruto didn't know how to read.

"But if you can't read, how could you tell which tags were which yesterday when we were sorting them?" Takeru asked in alarm- a mis-sorted tag could spell disaster should a shinobi need a door reinforcement tag and be mistakenly issued an exploding tag instead. Many seals were obfuscated to the point that a layman would only see a jumbled of lines, and Naruto hadn't seemed to be carefully scrutinizing them as they were sorted.

"Oh that's easy! they don't really look all that much alike- each type you had were different, I didn't need to read them."

Takeru's brow furrowed, and he got up, leaving the room for a minute. Naruto began to wonder if he'd done something wrong, when Takeru returned, a handful of tags in his hand. "Tell me the difference between these tags, then."

"Oh, that's easy! This one right here is one of those restraining tags you were showing me yesterday!"

Takeru glanced at the tag, and it was indeed a restraining tag. Deliberately, he grabbed the most similar tag in the stack, one designed to generate a small shock of electricity meant to short out electrical equipment. "This one is the restraining tag." He said.

"No it isn't!" Naruto insisted. "See these parts here?" Naruto pointed at a smim and a pair of fowders on the newly presented tag. "Those weren't on the restraining tag you showed me yesterday- and the restraining tag has this little thing on this top part," pointing at a blank length of smooth line where a restraining tag would possess a bewf-lo hybrid, "and this one doesn't have it!"

Takeru was stunned, although he wouldn't show it- The differences in those tags were indeed minute, and Naruto had picked them out in a glance. But Naruto wasn't done yet, and pointed out the other seven differences between the tags in another thirty seconds.

And the boy didn't even know how to read. It was deplorable, in Takeru's eyes- reading and writing were an integral part of his livelihood of the scribe and fuinjutsu arts. Takeru, on the third day after Naruto's surprise employment, began Naruto's crash course in literacy.

To Takeru's further surprise, Naruto's talents were not limited to observation. The boy learned and memorized hirigana script in a matter of days, katakana less than a week later, and in the process memorized multiple kanji as well as many of the basic script formulae of the fuinjutsu arts. His hand was less than steady as yet, but elegance and accurate inscription were things that would improve with practice.

The new routine was disrupted, when, some two and a half weeks after Unryuu Takeru returned from lunch to find his shop in disarray, the Hokage himself walked through the front door. Takeru spent almost two seconds gaping like a drowning fish before dropping to his knees. "Hokage-sama!"

Several ANBU came in behind him, taking up flanking positions by the doors both to the street and the the workroom and stairway. Sarutobi said nothing, watching Takeru with half-lidded eyes and a bland expression.

Takeru felt an ice cold rock forming in his guts.

Sarutobi's eyes darted past Takeru's shoulder as small footsteps pitter-pattered from the workroom. "Jiji!"

Sarutobi's lips curled into a friendly smile, looking back at Takeru. The smile never touched his eyes. "Naruto. I had heard that you were being punished for vandalizing a store. I think that two weeks is enough, am I right, Unryuu-san?"

Takeru was shaking now. He tried desperately to think why he let the boy come back to the shop, but was coming up completely blank. "H-Hokage-sama-"

"Oh, that?" Naruto asked, folding his arms. "That was just the first day. And Takeru-san was even nice to me about it so I asked if I could come back the next day and sweep the floors again but he said the floors were all done but I could come back and clean up ink spots and he gave me dinner even though I missed dinner time at the orphanage and he does it every day and lunch too and he's shown me all kinds of cool stuff like writing and talking to me and he answers questions I ask and he never looks mean at me and-"

"Naruto!" Chuckled the Hokage softly. "I came by to make sure you were okay, that nobody was taking advantage of you. I was just worried about you."

Apparently that had some meaning between the Hokage and Naruto that Takeru wasn't familiar with- Naruto's eyes darkened a little and he frowned. "No way! Takeru-san wouldn't do that! He's the best!" Insisted Naruto. "You be nice to him, or I'll egg your hat, old man!"

"Naruto!" Barked Takeru out of shock and habit. "Apologize for your rudeness!"

Naruto looked abashed, before looking down at the floor. "Sorry, Jiji."

The Hokage watched the interaction with a raised eyebrow and a smaller but more genuine smile than he'd worn earlier. A grizzled hand stroked his goatee momentarily, appraising Naruto carefully, before looking back at Takeru. "Naruto, may I have a word alone with Takeru-san for a minute?"

Naruto looked at the Hokage suspiciously, before nodding. "Be nice to him! He's my best friend!" Naruto said, before going back to the workroom.

Takeru felt the ice in his stomach thaw, as even the ANBU looked almost imperceptibly more relaxed and less threatening. The Hokage looked at him for a few seconds, before replying, "Due to the nature of Naruto's... tenant, there have been incidents in the past. I apologize to you for my earlier assumption. Please stand up."

Takeru did so, and began to stammer a statement along the lines of there being nothing to apologize for, but the Hokage waved him off. "There IS a need for it- Naruto has been shown so little kindness by strangers that I assume the worst out of reflex. Certain small spites that people will stretch to their utmost, casual cruelties, glares and subtle abuse. And even those that do not actively attempt to harm him will do their best to pretend he does not exist. I had heard that Naruto had damaged your shop from ANBU, and felt originally that he needed to be taught the lesson that his actions do not come without consequences. But you made him work for a day, and made an impression on him such that he willingly came back to work for you in any fashion that he could, just to be able to be near you."

The Hokage paused for a few seconds, a pause that Takeru felt a need to fill but had no words to do so with. After an awkward silence- for Takeru- the Hokage continued. "I have a mission for you- a long term mission, B-ranked." Takeru's eyes widened; B-ranked missions were the fare of solo jonins, or teams of chunin. "I believe, judging by what I have seen, that you will find this mission both suited to your talents and satisfying to perform. I wish for Naruto to move in with you, and for you to continue teaching the boy as you have already done over the last few weeks. Should your customers question you in the matter, your cover story is that Naruto has been in no trouble since you put him to work, and that for his continued good improvement I ordered you to continue his employment under you as a work program to instill better behavior in him."

"But Hokage-sama, I am no role model!" Takeru protested. "Even my work record shows that I have done poorly with others, and I admit that my talents are no greater than to work as a fuinjutsu scribe. I am no teacher of how to get along with others."

The Hokage laughed, then, a full on laugh that startled the shop owner with its genuine cheer and mirth. "You've begun, in a few short weeks, teaching him how to interact with others. He put up no protest when you told him to apologize for being rude, he simply did so without a second thought. He jumped to your defense when I - But never mind that. He counts you as his best friend, apparently higher even than myself, and that warms my heart. No, you sell yourself short, Takeru-san. Is it that you find the boy to be a burden?"

Takeru opened his mouth to retort no, then closed it again. He thought long and hard. After a minute of careful consideration, he said, "My business has faltered slightly since he arrived- but not so much that I could not support myself with it, and he as well. And I do not dislike the boy. I... cannot dislike him." Takeru frowned, then admitted, "And I tried to. I remember Kushina-san, and he is much like her, except in his own way, he is a much more gentle person. I only fear that he will some day decide as she did to unleash his prisoner on us all."

"Kushina did not willingly release her... prisoner, as you call it, nor did it break free on its own. There was an outside agent that struck at her moment of most absolute weakness to cause that calamity. No, you need not fear such an event, although to release this information to the public at large would ensure that any spies in the city would learn a secret of jinchuuriki that simply cannot afford to be widespread, thus the reason for the ignorance that causes the boy to suffer so much. But though I love the boy like a grandchild, all of us must sacrifice for the betterment of all. He only sacrifices some of his childhood comfort. I must sacrifice my conscience. He will overcome these troubles, and in time prove himself, so in the end, I think it is he who pays the lesser price." With a shake of his head, the Hokage dismissed this line of thought. "Do you accept the mission as I have given it?"

Takeru replied without thought. "I will do so without pay."

"That won't be necessary." The Hokage replied. "Starting today, Unryuu-san, your ongoing B-ranked mission will be to care for and mentor Uzumaki Naruto as you have done. I was considering placing him early in the academy as he has no family to teach him the basics of taijutsu and the like- earlier education takes hold so much stronger- but I think I will enroll him when he turns eight instead, along with his age mates. And Takeru-san?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Takeru responded.

"Thank you. You restore a little bit of this old man's faith in the village." The Hokage motioned to the ANBU, and the collection left the store.

Takeru stood stiffly for a few moments longer, before letting out a long, ragged sigh. "Naruto!" He called.

Naruto rushed out of the back room, a wet brush in his hands. "Yes, Takeru-san?" He asked.

Takeru looked at him for a few long seconds, then said, "I wish for you to live here with me. It allows you to come to work faster than the walk from the orphanage, and you can make better use of your time."

Naruto's face broke out in a wide grin, and he jumped in the air. "Yatta!"

Takeru winced at the spatters of ink from the brush that now dotted the wall. "Naruto! The wall!"

Naruto looked at the spots, then broke out into a sheepish expression. "I'll clean that up right now!"

**End Prologue**

* * *

AN: Unryuu is a derivative I chose for unryu- a type of translucent paper whose name means literally "Cloud dragon paper." It seemed appropriate and in keeping with Naruto tradition to give a name that would express much about what I felt about Takeru's intended character. Plain and unadorned, yet pure, and despite any attempts at obfuscation, you can see right through it. From a glance it seems simple and uninteresting, yet on closer inspection it reveals texture and character that can be studied for hours- that its apparent unevenness and flaws are truly what makes it worthwhile. I felt that the cloud dragon aspect also would show that there was strength, even considerable power, in his character, although it is largely unrealized by him as he is the only one who cannot see through himself. OC's have always made me nervous, as there are already an enormous cast of characters in the Naruto-verse, and adding in OC's has a potential for bad writing. But sometimes, you just have to make up a new person to fill in a new role that you've never seen attempted before.

Thanks as always for reading.

Ja mata.

-AXENOME


	2. Chapter One: Clone Wars

Chapter One: Clone Wars

* * *

Six years pass.

A great deal can change in six years.

"Naruto!" Called Takeru. "Are you ready for school?"

"Hai, tou-san!" Naruto yelled from the top of the stairs, the door to the kitchen closing shut behind him.

Takeru sighed in exasperation. "Naruto, we have gone over this before. I am not your father- I cannot be. Simply call me Takeru. How many times must I tell you this?" Despite the... stiffness of his words, a small smile touched his lips, one he was not even aware of. Naruto hurried down the stairs into the shop, his bookbag slung over his shoulder, before launching himself in a flying hug at Takeru. Takeru, much as he always did when Naruto hugged him, awkwardly patted him on the shoulder.

"At least once more, tou-san!" Naruto replied with a grin, before he ran out the door.

Not for the first time, Takeru wished distantly that Naruto truly was his son.

* * *

Naruto's feet jogged, a smile on his face as he enjoyed the early morning run. Today was the final test at the academy, the day where he would finally become a ninja. Mentally he went over everything that they'd covered in the last six months, so far in his academics he ranked third in the class, right behind Sakura and Sasuke. One slip from either of them and he could hit second, or even top slot. And even if they didn't, well, over the last four years he had worked hard at achieving third place.

Naruto still had trouble with his chakra control- chakra control exercises worked well for others, of course, but for him they seemed to make his reserves grow almost as fast as his control did- meaning that yes, he could measure out a more exact percentage of his available chakra, but his available chakra was getting so large that his net results were almost a zero sum equation.

So, he found a way to cheat.

Yes, Naruto felt he had a decent shot at top rookie. Or at least, he did, right up until Iruka sensei learned his secret.

"Well done, Naruto. You pa-"

"Hold on, Mizuki." Said Iruka, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Naruto, show me the Bunshin jutsu again."

Naruto blinked, then channeled the chakra into the bracer he'd crafted, calling up three more bunshin. Iruka scowled, then made an odd shape with his hands. "Again."

Naruto called up the bunshin, and there was a pulse of chakra. The still forming bunshin were dispelled before completely manifesting; the bracers glowed briefly.

"I knew it!" Snapped Iruka, leaning forward and grabbing the bracers. "This is NOT the bunshin jutsu!"  
"But Iruka," Mizuki said with a frown, "he DID make three bunshin, and quite convincingly-"

"These clones do not have the same utility and versatility of the clone jutsu!" Iruka said angrily. "By channeling the chakra through an object not influenced by his will, he can't make them convincing enough in a combat situation to be useful! And fuinjutsu bunshin- most fuinjutsu techniques, in fact, so long as the enemy notices the differences, can be cancelled by chakra pulse like the average genjutsu! And what about if his gear is damaged or captured? Suppose it's not just a bunshin, but an actual characteristic jutsu of Konoha?" He went on, furious. "The formula for a jutsu is imprinted on the object where it can be deciphered by any third year student! This sort of lazy nonsense is the sort of thing that gets entire teams killed in the field! He FAILS!"

"Iruka, there are ways around-"

"Iruka sensei, that's not-"

"It is DONE! Get out, send in the next student!" Snapped Iruka. Almost as an afterthought, he threw the bracer back at Naruto. "And take this crap with you!"

Mizuki looked at Iruka in frustration. But Iruka was the senior instructor, and Mizuki couldn't over ride him. Almost regretfully, he nodded. "There is always next year, Naruto."

Naruto's jaw was clenched, but he gave a stiff bow. "Hai, sensei." He turned and left the room.

* * *

Naruto didn't feel like going home to Takeru san and his inevitable disappointment. He had been doing so well, he was top three easily, and now he was the only one who didn't pass, all because of seals and his stupid chakra control. Sitting up against the wall outside the academy, he watched listlessly as parents came to pick up their kids, congratulating them on passing, hearing the whispers of vindicated strangers who had resented his outperforming their kids earlier in the year.

"Goes to show that they have SOME sense in that academy."

"Not so smart, is he? Did he REALLY think his cheap tricks would let him pass?"

"Thank Kami he failed. Imagine what it would be like if HE was made a Ninja." "Don't even go there."

His grip tightened on the bracer as he heard their whispers, and was startled to feel something dripping on his leg- a buckle on the bracer had cut into his hand, and blood had begun dribbling down. He sighed, making a conscious effort to relax his grip as he did so.

His morose thoughts were cut off as someone came up to where he was sitting- Mizuki sensei.

Mizuki took a seat on the ground next to Naruto, one knee up while the other leg lay stretched out. One of the parents nearby chose this moment to shoot a nasty glare at him for so closely associating with the blonde, but to Naruto's surprise, Mizuki shot the bird back at the man.

As the man turned his back in disgust, Mizuki lowered his fist and looked over at Naruto. "You know, Iruka's not that bad a guy."

Naruto sighed heavily. "He hates me. Like almost everybody does."

Mizuki shrugged. "He just doesn't relate to you. In a lot of ways, I think he's jealous. Of both of us."

"Jealous? Of me?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"The three of us- you, me, and Iruka. We're all orphans, you know. But you and I, we found someone who wanted to take care of us." Mizuki paused. "But Iruka never had anyone to love or teach him after his parents died- they were killed in the Kyuubi attack. He was alone until he was an adult, and he tried to play it off by pretending he didn't care, goofing off and being a clown, but you could tell."

Naruto's free hand fiddled with a pebble on the ground, before he picked it up and tossed it out onto the grass. "So what's everybody else's excuse?" Naruto growled sullenly. "They aren't all orphans but they all look at me the same." He turned his head to face the teacher. "Even you used to look at me like that, back when school started three and a half years ago."

Mizuki turned his head facing forward. "You remind me of myself, actually. Adopted by a single parent after your real parents were killed in the Kyuubi attack, you studied hard and you excelled academically because you put your smarts to work for you. How could I possibly dislike you?"

"That's now, though. Not then. Everyone hates me from the first moment they see me. Why?" Naruto's voice became more forceful. "None of the other kids have that happen, not even the troublemakers or bullies. Just me. You have to know why, so tell me! I deserve that much... don't I?"

Mizuki gritted his teeth softly. Before, before, before. When he'd first seen the blonde, he'd remember. Remember the roof of the orphanage collapsed inwards, the keel beam impaling his sister only a few feet away. The beam had punched through her small body like an awl, but by a freak accident she was alive. Her insides, they would later tell him as they tried to prepare him for her dying, were ruined. The massive weight and pressure of the beam kept her from bleeding to death. As the medic nin gently severed her carotid artery with a chakra scalpel so that she would no longer be in such horrible pain, they explained to him that she would have lived for several days, until dehydration set in. Her spine, cruelly, was intact, so she felt every injury that she'd incurred, from her shattered legs all the way to her crushed left hand, and dehydration would not spare her massive systemic infection as bacteria would eat her alive from the inside.

Mizuki spent weeks afterwards studying kitsune legends. Their mischievous ways, their love of pranks and their wild, energetic antics. And at first, from what he'd heard around town, Naruto was just that. But after the boy was adopted, he'd heard of the changes, as the boy was taught how to conduct himself. He learned manners, learned to apply himself and study, and Mizuki started to see, despite himself, that all along Naruto'd just been a child, unguided and untaught- of COURSE his behavior had been deplorable. And once he had someone to care for him, he'd become just like any other child raised by good parents. Naruto's progressively better behavior during the academy, his studious nature, his quick mind, these traits were nothing like the malevolent kitsune of lore. Naruto simply sought to better himself, to gain the approval of those around him, to be the best he could be.

Mizuki plucked a bit of grass at the edge of his reach, stripping off the outer blade and layer to reveal the soft stem inside, before he began nibbling at it silently. Finally he sighed again. "I'm... sorry, Naruto. I can't answer that."

Naruto gave a cynical huff and let his head fall back to the wall of the building, before rolling his eyes away. He didn't say anything else.

Mizuki clambered back to his feet, feeling weary. "I'll visit you at Takeru-san's shop later tonight. I have things to attend to."

Naruto didn't answer. After a few moments of awkward silence, Mizuki walked away.

* * *

"The rules are quite clear." The Hokage said. "And Iruka's judgement, while harsh, is squarely within the boundaries of both his duties and his rights as a teacher. As I understand it, every year at least one aspiring fuinjutsu apprentice makes the attempt to shortcut something."

Mizuki slammed a palm down on the desk, rattling an already precarious stack of forms. "Bullshit! Iruka wouldn't have given Naruto's bunshin a second look if it wasn't for the Kyuubi!"

The Hokage simply looked at Mizuki steadily while puffing slowly on his pipe. "So what do you propose that I do about it? Regardless of Naruto's grades until now, Iruka is CORRECT. Naruto's work-around has been attempted before, and its vulnerability to common genjutsu countermeasures is a weakness he cannot afford in the field. For all its complexities at higher levels of study, low ranking fuinjutsus are overall easier to learn than the combination of chakra control and internal chakra manipulation, but its vulnerabilities are too great to be of practical use."

"Naruto's chakra reserves are too high for the bunshin- it's practically the lowest intensity chakra technique in existance." Mizuki countered. "And rules can be worked around. Last year, a genin was graduated who couldn't do ANY jutsu."

"He also had the sponsorship of one of our best jonin, and isn't liable to attempt a bunshin in a fashion that will get him or his team killed when it fails." The Hokage replied smoothly. "Naruto is in the standard genin program, not the two year supplementary taijutsu program, and his training reflects this, unlike young... Lee, I think it was. And atop this, Lee's chances of reaching chunin are extremely poor, and without the ability to learn even one elemental recomposition, much less the requisite two, the rank of jonin is utterly unattainable for him. Do you genuinely see any jonin of this village going through any effort for Naruto to help him bypass this requirement?" Mizuki was silent. "Neither do I."

The Hokage blew out a thin stream of smoke, eying his pipe which had burnt out. Shaking his head, he flipped the pipe upside down and tapped out the ashes in the waiting ash tray, before packing the bowl with a thumb sized lump of tobacco, then lighting it with a minor fire jutsu. "Without a clear demonstration of Naruto's capacity in some fashion other than the standard program, there is no way he can be afforded the rank of genin."

Mizuki looked ready to explode, when the words filtered through his brain. His expression relaxed a moment, as he assessed the Hokage shrewdly. "There ARE a wide variety of tasks and areas of expertise that a ninja needs, and confrontational combat isn't the only one."

Sarutobi had a ghost of a smile as he took a long draw from his pipe. "Well, I suppose that is true."

"And demonstration of an unusual skill set at genin levels could gain him a team assignment in that capacity with no harm to his career later on- after all, a good jonin can educate him in all manner of ways to compensate for any weaknesses he possesses." Mizuki went on.

Sarutobi nodded. "In fact, even during the course of this auxiliary examination he might find a tool which might help him to compensate without need of recourse to a jonin's interference."

Mizuki's look was crafty. "Something like, oh, say, a mock up mission to retrieve something from a heavily defended building?"

"Not necessarily defended by shinobi, but maybe a great number of traps and wards. After all, due to his upbringing he has a remarkable facility for dealing with such things, especially fuinjutsu." Sarutobi commented off handedly. "Maybe the home of a prominent shinobi, for instance."

"Perhaps to steal a scroll?" Mizuki said with a sudden grin.

"Indeed. Of course, this is all purely hypothetical, you understand. As Hokage, I am required to be impartial to all of those who live here in the village, and naturally I cannot encourage special behavior. Still, should a make up test of a sort be administered by an Academy instructor, well, who am I to get in the way?"

"The Sarutobi clan compound, then?" Mizuki said.

Sarutobi shrugged, smiling and puffing. "I believe that anything... sensitive to the clan can be held elsewhere for safe keeping while the east wing of the compound is rennovated for cleaning and minor electrical repairs. Still, there might be a scroll or two of jutsu that was overlooked somewhere."

Mizuki snapped to attention. "Hokage sama, I thank you for your time, but I have pressing matters to attend to regarding my students before tomorrow. Permission to depart?"

"Granted." Sarutobi said with a nod.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sucked in the last wisps of smoke from the dying embers in his pipe as Mizuki left the room.

* * *

Naruto wasn't a seal master yet. But while he hadn't invented many thingt, he had spent several hours tonight examining his sealed bracers and the bunshin jutsu they enabled. And he realized something: That chakra pulse affected the jutsu because the wave of chakra to dispel genjutsu shorted out the circuitry of the seals.

But that could be overcome by a supplementary seal that could ground out the excess energy- and possibly, with that grounded out chakra, be designed to do something ELSE.

Naruto looked over the bracers in thought, before his eyes fell on a set of tags that he'd been puttering with. Almost absently, he noted the paralysis tag, then froze.

The paralysis tag and the electrical short tag were so similar because they were raiton based. But where the paralysis tag interfered with electrical nerve impulses, the electrical short tag actively generated a small current by the application of chakra. It was designed to not be hazardous, but with a little scaling up...

Of course, he'd need some way to redirect it where he wanted it to go.

It took him another fifteen minutes to come up with a solution.

Takeru had recognized that Naruto was upset when he came home, but also that Naruto was simultaneously in the throes of an innovative mood. His only words as Naruto headed to the shop were, "I expect you to effect any repairs needed for anything you damage."

Naruto had ideas, you see. Or more appropriately, Ideas. Capitalized ideas, ones which showed a spark of brilliance and more often than not caused more than a spark or two of flame. Or electricity, or a thorough dousing of water, or any of a number of other things. Mostly, his ideas had thus far resulted in unrestrained damage, although he'd developed a couple of surprisingly simple yet useful tags, as well as the bracers which created bunshin in numbers that Naruto desired, while maintaining a tenuous chakra link with the surplus injected into the seals, chakra he put to work giving him an unusual degree of control over their actions. Takeru suspected he already knew what had been the source of Naruto's poor mood, and had given some thought to warning him of fuinjutsu weaknesses, but occasionally Naruto would show a huge degree of stubbornness, especially in regards to anything he had invented- even if the invention had been done before. Sometimes, Naruto just had to learn the hard way.

"Tou-san!" Naruto called.

"Naruto, I am not your father." Takeru called out, that tiny smile on his lips. "How many times-"

"At least one more. I have a question- you know that fuinjutsu techniques can be dispelled by genjutsu counters, right?" Naruto asked, huddled over his bracers.

Suspicion confirmed, Takeru nodded. "I would have told you about this, but-"

"How much chakra is the least amount that a counter could use to disrupt, say, a bunshin fuinjutsu?" Naruto interrupted.

"Interrupting someone while they are talking is rude, Naruto." Takeru said reflexively.

"Sorry tou-san."

Takeru gave it a small amount of thought. "It depends on the chakra control of the dispelling nin, as well as distance- the chakra expelled follows the inverse square law."

Naruto nodded. "I was betting it was something like that."

"Genjutsu counters usually aren't covered until becoming a genin." Takeru said, looking politely over Naruto's shoulder- from several feet away, of course. Just to be safe.

"Guess I'm just special, then." Naruto grunted irritably. "I get to learn about them early."

A few last lines, and Naruto examined his work with a careful eye. From Takeru's position, the visible lines were thin and elegant even to his scribe's standards. "What, ah, does this one do?"

"Tou san, I need you to do the lowest possible genjutsu disruption you can when I call up my bunshin." Naruto said, reassembling the bracers to conceal the fuinjutsu work.

"Even a low level insulator will not protect them from a mid sized chakra pulse, and using an insulator seal that could, would bleed off the majority of the chakra you injected to activate them." Takeru commented. "It might protect from a low level pulse, but..." He trailed off, before forming a ram seal.

"Nah, this will handle all kinds of pulses, and it's not an insulator, per se. And I say lowest possible level for safety's sake." Naruto said, pulling on the bracers. "You ready, tou-san?"

Takeru nodded. "Ready."

The bunshin began forming, but to Takeru's surprise, rather than the bunshin flickering out of existance, Takeru himself was suddenly struck by a spark of electricity- not much more than a heavy jolt of static electricity, really, but totally unexpected- that arced from the bracers which briefly glowed. "Wh-what the-?"

Any further inquiries were disrupted by the sound of the bell at the door to the shop. "Naruto!" Called a familiar voice- Mizuki sensei.

"Be right there!" Naruto called back.

Takeru put a hand on Naruto's arm. "I would greatly like to know what exactly it was that you did to your bracers, Naruto."

"Tell you in a bit, tou-san. Gotta talk to my teacher first." Naruto said, rushing out of the room.

Mizuki waved Naruto over. "I have some good news for you, Naruto."

"I got good news for you too, sensei!" Naruto said with animation. "I figured out a way to protect my bunshins from genjutsu dispelling!"

"What?" Mizuki said, non plussed. "I've been authorized to give you a supplementary exam."

Naruto froze, indecisive. "But I can prove that my clones won't just go up in smoke. It's really neat- it actually works against someone who tries to take advantage of their previous weakness."

Mizuki pondered this for a few moments, before saying, "Well, we can use that as a back up plan.. But let's try the alternate exam first, and keep your new technique a secret as long as you can."

Naruto nodded.

"Okay, listen up. This alternate exam tests your ability to bypass security measures and retrieve a document..."

* * *

Naruto gave a wry assessment of the series of seals in front of him- a tangle of lines and false trails, clearly intended to prevent someone from doing exactly what he was trying to do: decipher and defuse, or at the very least bypass.

He'd already gotten past several security protocols. One of them, a two part seal designed to alert a master seal of an intrusion coupled with a field generated genjutsu designed to keep the unwary wandering in circles, he'd actually had to jerry-rig a seal to create a gap in its zone of coverage. It was quick, dirty, and had required a fourteen foot scroll that among other things had cost him about half a pint of blood to craft on the fly, but he'd crafted a paper bridge over the zone that prevented the seal from triggering from his body weight or ambient chakra. He had the feeling that he might be overthinking this one, but meh. That scroll could be reused so long as it wasn't damaged in the mean time, and therefore was likely to come in very handy someday later.

True to Mizuki sensei's word, there seemed to be no actual people guarding the path- the argument for the exam being that his team mates would neutralize the sentries but that the wards in place were beyond their level of expertise. Furthermore, there was a time limit- a changing of the guard was due in eighty five minutes, and potentially he'd have to dodge guards as well.

What Naruto was not told, was that the simulation was going to be intentionally interrupted five minutes early.

What Mizuki was not told- because Sarutobi himself did not know it- was that Iruka was going to take a late night walk.

* * *

Iruka had been feeling rather guilty, considering. The practice of fuinjutsu techniques to substitute for ninjutsu was fairly obscure, mostly because the practice in the past had been shown to be ineffective. Enough so that nobody allowed their genin in the field to attempt it.

The weakness would be apparent the moment that opposition attempted to dispel a force field genjutsu, but many teams didn't field a genjutsu specialist- or even an adept. Maybe...

But some techniques seemed to simulate genjutsu, or did something so out of control that the victims believed genjutsu was being employed.

True, he was being harsh, but he had good reason... didn't he?

Trying to look at it objectively, Iruka wondered if maybe he'd been looking for excuse.

No, self honesty here. I WAS looking for an excuse... because of-

A blaring alarm rang out, and Iruka spun, trying to understand what was going on. The Sarutobi clan compound- an intruder?

Iruka rushed up to the wall, noting a quick array of seal work bypassing contact triggers.

He'd know that handwriting anywhere- Uzumaki.

Naruto is breaking into the Hokage's home? he asked himself in disbelief.

A figure burst out over the wall, a scroll tucked under one arm. There was no mistaking that rake of wild hair in the light of the full moon- That was clearly Naruto.

Any lingering doubts Iruka had harbored were dispelled, and he cursed himself for entertaining the idea that he'd misjudged the boy because of his own prejudices. As servants and ANBU appeared suddenly, Iruka shouted over his shoulder, "Uzumaki Naruto has burglarized the Hokage's estate! Stop him!" before he too shot off in pursuit.

* * *

Naruto cursed under his breath. His pursuit was gaining on him, despite his best tricks and seals. He was down to less than a half dozen tags, his ninja kit, and his wits.

"'Remember, your job isn't to fight,' he says. 'Evasion is the watchword of the day,' he says. 'Any pursuit is going to be way out of your league in toe to toe fighting,' he says. How the hell am I supposed to outrun and evade them if the alarm goes off early and they're already chasing me for stuff that's not my fault?" Naruto growled breathlessly as he ran to the meeting point.

Naruto skidded to a halt as a figure materialized in front of him- Iruka sensei.

Oh, shit.

"Naruto, that's far enough, you little thief." Iruka said coldly. "I can and will use any necessary measures to apprehend you. You're already in a boatload of trouble for robbing the Hokage's estate; but attacking a konoha nin will pretty much ensure your execution. If you plan on living to see tomorrow's sun rise, even from the inside of a cell, I suggest you drop your toolkit- slowly- and get on your knees with your hands open and placed on the side of your face."

Mizuki flickered into the area. "Iruka? What are you doing?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "Did I make it to the meeting point?" He said in disbelief.

"Meeting point?" Iruka parroted dumbfounded.

"Yeah! I'm on a make up examination for genin, if I made it to the rendezvous point with the target document, I'd pass and get to genin!" Naruto answered. "If Mizuki sensei is here, I made it to the rendezvous before being caught! So I pass, right?"

Iruka froze for a split second. Mizuki started to speak, but Iruka cut him off. "Oh, you stupid fool." Iruka said. "Mizuki's using you- playing off your failure in the test to get you to steal something for him- and you played right into his hands."

"What? NO!" Mizuki shouted. Iruka whipped out a scroll from the center pocket of the right facing of his vest and snapped it out at Naruto; the paper unravelled in mid air and bound Naruto hand and foot before he had a proper chance to react.

"I don't have time for you right now; I'll drag your carcass to ANBU after I deal with the traitor."

"T-traitor?" Naruto gasped.

"Isn't it obvious? You're a patsy." Iruka said, as Mizuki stood flummoxed. "He suckers you into retrieving something he needs or wants from the Hokage's home, takes it to his masters, and you're left holding the bag. Isn't that right, Mizuki?"

"No, you've got it all wrong!" Mizuki insisted, waving his open hands. "This was to test his skills at breaking and entering, and disarming wards! The Hokage arranged for there to be no guards!"

"There were no guards because the Hokage is rennovating that wing of his home!" Iruka snapped, haulling out a kunai. "Everyone in the village knows it! Except that little idiot behind us, apparently. Just goes to show that no amount of booksmarts will substitute for basic common sense." Iruka darted forward.

Mizuki whipped out a kunai of his own, deflecting Iruka's charge. "Iruka, stop it! I'm not an enemy!"

"Shut up traitor!" Iruka ground out, hooking a leg behind Mizuki's hamstring and toppling him. "As an instructor, you're worse than filth! Betraying your duties as a teacher is the lowest form of treachery!"

"UNGH!" Mizuki grunted as Iruka's weight dug the kunai in Iruka's hand through his vest and about an inch and a half into his right pectoral just to the left of the nipple. "Dammit where are ANBU!"

"Your little cat's paw is to thank for that- but I know his seal work since I see it every day at the academy!" Iruka said triumphantly, bearing down harder on the kunai. The blade was slowly sinking in deeper as Mizuki's arms were gradually tiring, losing strength, fighting gravity. "He can't fool me- and you won't get away with betraying the village!"

Mizuki was desperate- he was feeling every milimeter of the blade as it drove gradually, inexorably deeper- A desperate thrashing managed to dislodge Iruka partially, giving him enough room to attempt a genjutsu he'd been trying to learn alongside the guidance of the beautiful Yuuhi Kurenai: "Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"

Iruka felt vines wrapping his body, binding him tightly. Mizuki started scrambling out from underneath him.

"NO!" Iruka roared. "YOU WON'T GET AWAY!"

Tree Binding Death was in many ways a master crafted genjutsu- immune to normal dispelling techniques such as internalized chakra pulses and pain, because the source of the illusion was reinforced by ambient chakra in the environment. But Mizuki was no illusion master, and Iruka was no mere genin. He pulsed his chakra-

-And a bolt of raw lightning arced from the bound and near helpless Naruto lying recumbant on the ground. Iruka gave a short scream and passed out.

Mizuki stared dumbly at the still slightly smoking form of Iruka on the ground. "Well, at least we know your modification works."

* * *

Sarutobi was addressing the three shinobi- well, two chunin and an academy student.

"-And so, this entire unfortunate incident was a series of misunderstandings and bad luck," finished the Hokage. "Mizuki requested the use of the abandoned wing of the Sarutobi compound for a test to demonstrate Naruto's competency as a security measures specialist."

Iruka, clearly mortified, was staring at the wall above Sarutobi's head. "I submit myself for arrest pending trial for an assault against a fellow konoha shinobi."

"Get over yourself, Iruka." Mizuki said tiredly, his arm in a sling to reduce the possibility of exacerbating his chest wound. "You're not perfect and you reached a- mistaken- but very possible conclusion."

"Indeed." Replied the Hokage. "Remember, paranoia is a survival trait in our line of work- although it never hurts to confirm when possible. No disciplinary action is required in this case; Mizuki, since official instruction is over for the year your medical assessment doesn't bar you from attending to your classes in... three and a half hours. And I believe you other two are also going to be in attendance; you three may want to get in a few hours of sleep before you do."

As Iruka and Naruto turned away, Mizuki said, "Before we leave, Hokage sama, I have a matter I wish to bring up.

Iruka and Naruto paused, looking back. The Hokage responded, "Yes, Mizuki?"

"I- well, for one, I think Naruto should be given credit with passing the auxiliary assessment." He said.

"And that would be because...?" Sarutobi prodded, leaving the statement hanging.

"Well, despite being caught by Iruka, that was only due to Iruka's familiarity with Naruto- even ANBU dispatched after him were unable to maintain his trail with the series of wards and seals he left in his wake."

"Which means that there is a batch of ANBU that I'm reccomending for remedial training." Commented the Hokage drily. "But the point is noted and in my opinion acceptable performance for a prospective genin. But the use of 'for one' implies that there is a second matter?"

Mizuki swallowed hard. "I believe he should be told."

Naruto was confused by this for a few seconds, but it was clear that both Iruka and the Hokage knew what Mizuki was talking about. After a small consideration, Naruto clued in on it too. "This is about why everyone hates me, isn't it?" He demanded.

The Hokage sent a dirty look at Mizuki, one mirrored by Iruka, but internally knew that Mizuki was right. "Yes. Since he is reaching the age of majority, and is an adult on reaching the status of genin, I suppose he does have the right to know. Naruto, you must remember from the academy the history of Konoha, what happened twelve years ago on October tenth..."

* * *

The next day, Mizuki sat at the desk, arm still in a sling, a shiny new hitai-ate on his forehead.

"Decided to get a new one, eh?" Iruka said, jerking a thumb at the forehead protector.

"Eh, my old one is in use." Mizuki snarked, nodding towards the third row.

Naruto, grinning like a loon, adjusted the battered hitai-ate Mizuki had given him just outside the door to Takeru's shop, before his grin was broken by an exhausted yawn.

"By the way, what the heck did Naruto hit me with last night?" Iruka asked.  
"Damnedest thing." Mizuki answered. "I was there with Takeru- he was worried sick when ANBU came by last night with the news that something had gone wrong with Naruto- and Naruto explained it to the two of us. When a chakra pulse goes out it has a certain strength at certain distances, but the whole pulse is loosely associated with itself- and he added a seal array to his bunshin bracers that acts like a lightning rod for diffuse chakra pulses."  
"So it soaks up chakra not just at the contact point, but the entire pulse?" Iruka said. "But what about the lightning?"

"Well, he said that since a whole bunch of energy was coming in like that, why not put it to use? He modified an low output electronic disruption seal to convert all that grounded chakra into a raiton bolt that travels along a feedback path to its original source."

"Heh. Pretty clever. But what if one of his comrades needs to break him out of a genjutsu?"

Mizuki furrowed his brow momentarily. "He didn't say. Probably already considered that scenario, knowing him, though. He's pretty damn smart."

Iruka nodded. "I suppose he is, at that. Guess that means his bunshin requirement is met also- so he passes two ways."

"Actually, his bunshin requirement is covered by something else- the scroll Naruto retrieved for his assignment contains a copy of a clone jutsu he actually CAN use- tsuchi bunshin no jutsu." Mizuki snickered. "He showed it to me this morning right before he came into class- the jutsu, not the scroll."

Iruka's mouth dropped open. "He learned it that fast?"

"Apparently stayed up all night practicing it." Mizuki said. "I told him he was gonna need the sleep he missed, but he said he had time for sleep after he made Hokage."

"Sets his sights pretty high, hmm?"

"Yep. Think he'll make it?"

"Maybe. I wonder... do you think he should?"

"Why not?"

**End Chapter One**

AN: Alright, a number of things I am going to address that will do nothing to stem the tide of hate that is inbound right now.

Mizuki is not evil in this fic.

*GASP* You mean I had the temerity to break one of the cornerstones of the Holy Catholic Church of Naruto Fiction? How dare I?

Well, I tried to look at it from the viewpoint that no man considers himself to be evil, and that most acts of terrible evil come from people who have lost sight of where their actions lead because they're too busy focusing on what's right in front of them.

Consider this: A man who works very hard to prove his worth, an orphan, who busts his balls to achieve the rank of chunin- and it's clearly not easy to do, considering the trials of the Chunin exam later on- 150+ entrants, to be whittled down to eight people who compete in a tournament for the CHANCE to be CONSIDERED for the position- let's just assume for the sake of logic that field promotions are possible, but probably just as stringent in their requirements.

This means that logically speaking, there's probably about ten or so lifer genin for every ninja who makes it to chunin. This in turn means that it is a significant ACCOMPLISHMENT to get to this rank- top nine percent, in fact. If you up the number of field promotions to one in five, you're still talking top twenty percent- in a grade book in your average high school, this amounts to a "B" grade.

Now consider Mizuki, bereaved, forced to watch a pranking, goofing child who just so happens to be housing the monster that forced you to suffer the agonizing loss of your sister at the hands of a medic nin, to prevent her from dying over the course of a few DAYS as opposed to about thirty seconds.

So why does he even forgive Naruto at all? For the same reason that Iruka forgives him in Canon- because he sees himself in the boy, rather than his preconceived notions of the Fox demon.

The most significant memory that Iruka (presumably) possesses of the demon fox could probably be the one alluded to on page 26 of volume 1- a towering colossus of unstoppable power. An ancient evil. Something malevolent and likely in possession of knowledge unknown and unknowable to mortals. Compare this to a lonely boy who uses pranks to attract attention. Something Iruka resonates with.

Compare to this scenario- Mizuki being able to relate to a boy who, orphaned but finding someone to care for him, learns to excel, shows none of the stereotypical traits of the kitsune of japanese folk lore, which isn't so far fetched an idea to say that the Narutoverse possesses such lore.

Iruka, meanwhile, sees a boy who is quiet, isolated, but rather than attempt to connect with others around him simply studies, delving into lore and getting third spot behind the scion of the Uchiha clan and Haruno Sakura who is hailed as the most learned genin of her class, but not just in third but with a fighting chance at second or first spot. In the shinobi world, knowledge is power, and Naruto is showing tendencies towards both knowledge AND power. Possibly great power- if Naruto can almost hit neck and neck with the younger brother of a shinobi who reputedly wiped the most powerfful clan in Konoha from existance without anyone the wiser until it was OVER, what does that say about Naruto in two years? In five?

Add this to the fact that the boy is studying fuinjutsus- the very art that sealed the Kyuubi away- what's to say that the beast won't find a way out in these studies?

Item the second. "Iruka is using a restraining technique on Naruto that there's no support for in canon- wtf?"

For this one, I took a little bit of artistic license; final panel of page thirty two of volume one, Iruka pulls a kunai out of his chest- and vest- that pierced the very pocket I described him drawing that technique scroll from. The cut is diagonal but crosses from one side of that scroll pocket to the other; you can assume that whatever was inside of it is probably ruined. Okay, so it's a bit of a stretch, but I like it.

That's about it; Hope you all like the chapter, and don't expect the next one to be out this quickly; my lady muse grabbed me by the short and curlies with a sledge hammer in her other hand and my keyboard in her teeth with the words "Your choice" written on a post it note stuck to her forehead.

Til next time.

Ja mata.

-AXENOME


	3. Chapter Two: Selection

Class would not begin for another nine minutes.

Plenty of time for a few barbs to sink in.

"Uzumaki san." Commented the pale eyed prodigy coolly, her tone dripping with disdain. "It would appear that your failure yesterday has somehow not managed to convey to you the pointlessness of your continued attendance here at the academy."

Naruto tensed slightly- the alteration in his demeanor would have been unnoticeable to most people, but the Hyuuga girl was not most people. "Hanabi-san. Good morning to you."

* * *

**Axenome Presents: Scribe**

**Chapter Two: Selection**

* * *

Naruto knew what came next, and Hanabi was not one to keep others waiting. "How very uncouth." Naruto had mimicked the words silently with a roll of his eyes. Hanabi pretended not to notice. "The proper form of address for someone of my station being spoken to by someone of your station- such as it is- is the honorific 'Sama.' That you are somehow incapable of comprehending even this most basic facet of social propriety is proof that, despite your adoption, you can pull an orphan out of the gutter, but you will never pull the gutter out of the orphan."

Naruto clenched his teeth a slight bit more. Hanabi continued, "Your posture shows your humiliated cringe quite clearly, Uzumaki. Your tensing jaw-"

"Maybe I would display greater respect for you should you refer to me as Unryu instead of Uzumaki." Naruto replied, finally turning his head to look at her through half lidded eyes.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but did not Unryu-san deny you the use of his name despite taking you into his home?" Hanabi shot back victoriously. "I can't speak to his motives with certainty, but from your performance yesterday as well as your inability to recognize basic patterns and logical progression, perhaps even he realized what a stain you would have been on his family's name."

Naruto's face went a little pale, his fists tightening enough to crack the ever present brush in his hand, before he forced himself to calm

* * *

"Hey guys, check it out- Hanabi and Naruto are at it again." Kiba said, nodding his head in the direction of the two bickering in the middle row.

"Ugh." Ami said with a huff. "Doesn't she have anything better to do with herself than to bother Naruto?"

"Don't let Sasuke hear you talking like that. He'll fell neglected." Kiba said with a snicker.

"Hanabi-dono's confrontational demeanor is a poor cover for her fascination with Naruto," said Shino unexpectedly.

Kiba and Ami did a double take- Shino rarely spoke, let alone made any kind of social commentary about others in the class. "What are you talking about?" Asked Ami. Kiba nodded his agreement with her question.

"Hanabi has a very distinct interest in Naruto." Shino answered, adjusting his sunglasses. "During class she directs glares in his direction any time she can get away with it, and she watches him constantly, looking for anything she can use to gain his attention the only fashion she knows how- by attacking him verbally."

"You mean to say she's got a CRUSH on him?" Ami demanded, angry for a reason she could not define. "She likes him and she treats him like that?"

Shino turned to face Ami directly, and not for the first time she felt discomfort at the blankness of his stare through the sunglasses. "You must have noticed by now. In the last two months, Hanabi-dono has confronted Unryu-san no less than eighteen times in an attempt to draw some sort of reaction from him. In consideration of her age and the fashion in which the Hyuuga clan is raised, especially considering her position as the next main branch heiress, I imagine that she herself isn't even aware of her attraction to him. In this respect the two of you have much in common."

"I don't-" Ami didn't finish the sentence, looking back at where Naruto and Hanabi stood arguing- not exceptionally loudly, but certainly with a great deal of heat. Naruto's attention was completely on the heiress, and under her clear display of haughty superiority, there seemed to be a slight hint of... satisfaction?

Kiba laughed at Ami's flummoxed expression. "Ha! Shino's got you pegged. You're just mad at her all the time because Hanabi's got a better shot at Naruto than you!"

"She most certainly does not!" She growled at Kiba, making him recoil a little.

"While his statement is rude, I find myself conceding his over all point, in that Hanabi appears to have a lead on Naruto's attention over you- by quite a large margin." Shino remarked, seeming to almost enjoy Ami's resentment.

Ami's brow furrowed as her features congealed into a scowl. "You really think that she's got a better chance at drawing Naruto's eye than I do? That flat chested, nine year old elitist shrew?"

* * *

Four minutes til class started, and students were still trickling in.

The students who were already here were breaking up into groups as always, talking, socializing amongst themselves. One of the more interesting interactions was the increasingly heated exchange back and forth between Hyuuga Hanabi and Uzumaki Naruto. Mizuki raised an eyebrow as he always did, and Iruka responded as HE always did: "Let it play out on its own."

Then, things suddenly took a turn for the bizarre. Almost without warning, Ami slammed her hands down on her stretch of table as she shot to her feet, eyes blazing. "I'll prove it!"

Most conversation in the room ground to a halt, save for the sniping parry, stab, and reprise of the verbal battle between Naruto and Hanabi. Neither of them noticed Ami's stomping approach- which, in fact, made them the only people in the room who DIDN'T.

Hanabi had always held something of a sore spot over the Uzumaki boy- a close contender with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke for rookie of the year, Naruto's incomprehensable exceeding of Hanabi's own performance was a thorn in her side and a humiliating reminder to her of her own place in the current generation of Hyuuga talent.  
A year ago, Hyuuga Hinata had simply... given up. She formally requested her father to have her marked with the Cursed Seal and be done with it. Unable to gain her father's approval, her cousin Neji's forgiveness for... well, whatever it was that he resented her for, nor able to gain even a token admission of affection from her younger sister, Hinata had requested to be sealed away into the branch family and removed from duty as a potential shinobi.

What should have been a private affair had been blown wide open, however, by a few careless words in public by Hyuuga Neji, and a strange act of defiance in retaliation by Hinata: Rather than simply stand there and take the verbal abuse as she always had, Hinata took an action that she had never before taken in her life. She activated the cursed seal.

The cursed seal was intended for use only by the main branch, and to prevent its abuses by branch members, any attempt by a former main branch potential to activate the seal would ground out on their own seal, as Hinata had full well known. As the seal burned, and tears streamed from her eyes, out there in the middle of the street, Hinata asked through a shaking voice if this was what Neji wanted from her, to see her suffer, and if she gave it to him, that maybe he would forgive her.

Neji lasted precisely three and a half seconds before he was screaming for Hiashi to stop her from hurting herself. He made the attempt to seal off the tenketsu leading to and from the Manji, but it was designed to prevent such a defense, and Hinata maintained what could only be described as hellish levels of concentration to ensure that her activation of the seal was not disrupted, up til the moment Hiashi's gently but hurriedly applied juuken strikes robbed her of consciousness.

Neji was never the same afterwards.

Suddenly, with Neji's support, Hinata bloomed. Rather than being constantly torn down by her "big brother" Neji, he took the time to patiently describe exactly what her eyes should be seeing, train her reflexes to fight and defend effectively, and most of all, broke her of the habit of avoiding a strike for fear of hurting someone. Hinata was suddenly able to do as a branch member what she'd never managed as a main house member- consistently beat her younger sister.

A small fact which Neji had mentioned with no small degree of pride to his team. In ear shot of their families, one day, which turned out to be a terrible mistake as what had been an isolated incident was reinforced into a drama by Tenten's mother, Higurashi Kitara.

The gossip spread like wildfire.

Now, the dirty secret was out, that Hanabi was actually the least skilled of the close members of her generation.

This was, in fact, a detail that Naruto was angry enough to exploit. Two months of abrassive contact with the snotty little princess had finally worn away the carefully applied and cured veneer of politeness that Takeru had worked so hard to give him, and even his best efforts were still somewhat incomplete. Naruto was ready to really lay into Hanabi with a few words she would NEVER forget.

He measured his response quite carefully- chin lifted slightly, disdain carefully applied to his features, a sneer almost identical to the one which she used on him every day.

The comment he was preparing to deliver was a statement of his own third place in the class being a considerable sight better than Hanabi's third place in the three way competition between herself and her two nearest age mates in the Hyuuga clan. It was a cheap shot considering the scandal that the issue had caused, and likely would have won not only the argument but Hanabi's most fervent and eternal hatred from now until doomsday.

His retort, however, was cut off almost the moment he opened his mouth- and his mouth WAS open- when he was yanked up out of his chair, whirled around, and kissed full on the lips by one of the most... outspoken members of the Sasuke fanclub, Tendo Ami. Her lips opened, her tongue tangled with his, and Naruto completely lost track of the last five minutes by the time she pulled back. "Da... ba... whuh...?"

Sasuke, who had been seated behind Naruto and was watching the proceedings with a mix of annoyance and amusement, made the transition completely to satisfaction as he broke out in the most genuine smile he'd worn in five years. "One down, thirty useless fan girls to go. Naruto, you've given me hope."

Ami suddenly seemed to realize what this must look like to Sasuke, and experienced a moment of indecision- but only a moment. By the end of that Kiss, Naruto had been kissing her back, and suddenly the original goal of spiting the Hyuuga girl (yes, only to spite Hanabi... right?) was secondary to the fact that she had kissed Naruto.

Ino and Sakura saw this as competition finally thinning out, and were overjoyed.

Sasuke saw this as a light at the far end of a long, and until now, seemingly endless, tunnel.

Yukiko saw this as rather pointless, since after today the genin would have only minimal contact with one another unless they were on teams together.

Haruka saw this as fascinating, being that both girls, one who had been outright abusive to Naruto while the other took pains to never be seen associating with him, were suddenly glaring daggers at one another for a brief but extremely intense five seconds.

Hanabi saw this as a crass display of public affection and a gross encroachment on her territory.

Shikamaru saw this as the herald of a whole lot of drama.

Chouji and Kiba saw this as simply hilarious.

And Shino saw this one coming a while ago.

What the rest of the class saw wasn't really important, considering they weren't on any of the graduating teams a week from now. But only MOSTLY irrelevant, as within forty eight hours rumor across Konoha had firmly established Naruto as "Property of Tendo Ami."

This would cause both teens some serious headaches over the coming weeks... but that was later, and the now had enough problems to deal with.

Timing was everything. Before Ami could enact damage control, Iruka Sensei called out for everyone to take their seats. The boy who had been seated next to Naruto immediately stood up and walked over to the empty seat by Shino and Kiba, muttering something along the lines of, "Don't want to intrude."

Meaning that the nearest empty seat in the almost full classroom was the one right next to Naruto.

Everything was happening too quickly for Ami- but her moment of indecision ended as she saw the mounting and largely silent fury of the normally impassive Hyuuga Hanabi, and decided that one-upping that prissy rich brat was worth a few hours of misunderstanding.

Ami never considered the fact that her actions:

1) Staked a claim on Naruto with her kiss,

2) Reinforced the claim by her wordless confrontation with Hanabi,

3) Sealed that claim by complete lack of protest on either side, Ami's or naruto's, and

4) Engraved that claim in a bronze plaque by sitting side by side with Naruto for the rest of class.

Teens being teens, the two of them may as well have been married with twins on the way, in the eyes of their peers.

Of course, Ami was a bit too distracted to take any sort of immediate notice of things like this. While Iruka sensei droned on about the life, duties, and details of being an adult and a shinobi, Ami was busy trying to understand what she had just done and why she had done it.

_Why would I kiss Naruto, of all people, even to get at Hyuuga Hanabi?_ She wondered. _I mean, sure, he's polite, and clearly he's smart, and kind of cute with those funny whisker tattoos. And in sparring he's fairly close to Sasuke's level, a little slower, a little stronger, and when he wins his fights it's usually through either out toughing Sasuke, outlasting him, or getting into a grapple where he could put his greater strength to work. Not to mention Naruto's Kawarimi can pull a decoy faster and from farther away than anyone else in the class, or his skill in fuinjutsus, a field of study few shinobi ever study before attaining chunin grade, if they ever take it up at all, and... _

_Oh kami,_ Ami thought to herself with a numb sense of disbelief. _I've had my eye on him for ages and I didn't even know it. Shino was right._

Ami briefly glanced at Naruto out of the corner of her eye, and saw he was plainly listening to everything Iruka sensei had to say. It didn't escape her notice that as his gaze swept the classroom, Iruka's eyes would take on an unreadable expression when they passed over Naruto. Neither did it escape her notice that every time Naruto made eye contact with Mizuki sensei, Naruto's smile grew a little wider and he sat up a little straighter in his chair, adjusting his hitai ate.

Come to think of it, Naruto's Hitai ate was a bit battered- sure, it was clean and well seated on the cloth, but the metal was fatigued in some places, and scarred or scuffed in others. Over all, it didn't look like the standard issue for new recruits, instead seeming more like the long worn symbol of an old hand, bearing the traces of real work and experience.

About half way through class she finally noticed that Mizuki's headband was brand new.

_Naruto... Mizuki sensei gave Naruto his hitai ate?_ She realized. _But traditionally, Naruto would have had to do something like save his life or something! What happened yesterday after class?_

* * *

The classroom was empty for lunch; since it was the day of placement, the students were getting a full hour of lunch rather than the usual thirty minutes. During this time, the genin were being observed by their future jonin, just to get an idea of their temperaments. And unexpected stretch of boredom mixed with anticipation can bring out facets of personality that don't display themselves often, but can be vitally important to know about. Long stretches of boredom seasoned with anticipation were a staple of shinobi life, especially when on picket duty, scouting, or escort.

Mizuki, however, wasn't experiencing boredom or anticipation- he was actually feeling a little bit of puzzlement, as he considered the team assignments. "Iruka, what am I missing here?"

Iruka looked up from the performance report he was finishing up, then after blinking at Mizuki, took a look over the page of student-teacher assignments. After a moment, he said, "Looks about right, as far as I can tell. Ino-Shika-Cho formation for the second generation... strikes me as a bit presumptuous, but the potential is there, so they'll get their chance. Hmm. Akado Kaneda, bloodline family but shows no rteal interest in the shinobi life, along with his lack of talen for his family techniques... Yes, he's in the right team. Possible tracking team with Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hanabi... some possible friction there with the Hyuuga girl, very proud, arrogant even, but her team mates are both children of clan heads so that should at least give them something in common and a basis for respect... Yeah, looks like everything is correct here. What seems to be so off to you?"

"Well, it seems..." Mizuki hesitated, tapping a finger restlessly on the desk, before continuing, "It just feels like the teams are being stacked unfairly."

"Oh? How so?" Iruka prompted, although something in his look told Mizuki that the senior instructor probably already knew where he was going with this.

"It just seems like everybody with the temperament to become a decent ninja is on one of three teams," Mizuki said.

Iruka nodded to himself with a smile, leaving Mizuki with the impression that he'd passed some sort of test himself. "Well, that's because we sort of set it up that way," Iruka answered.

Mizuki didn't take the bait, instead choosing to wait for Iruka to elucidate. Iruka didn't disappoint. "You know we track the kids on more than what we tell them. They only hear about a third of the things they're actually being graded on and assessed for. It wouldn't do to let them know how closely they're being monitored by their superiors even here in the academy. But every team we set on graduation is intended to maximize the strengths of the available talent pool we draw from, while those who either don't have the drive and ability, or just aren't ready yet for genin, are all put on teams with little to no cohesive synnergy."

"Wait- you mean, team seven-" Mizuki started.

Iruka glanced down at the page. "Hmm, yeah, there's no way those three should be genin yet. Sasuke's psych profile is all over the place, Sakura, while smart, doesn't have the self discipline she needs and has no motivation beyoond gaining Sasuke's attention, and Haruka is... well, she's just clumsy. That's why they got Hatake Kakashi; ;he hasn't passed a team his entire career."

Mizuki felt a little ill. "But why would you set them up for failure like that?"

Iruka shook his head. "We have to let them think they're working for themselves. Self motivation is the most powerful tool for results that exists." At Mizuki's apparent lack of comprehension, Iruka sighed. "Look, we have a lot of things in place to deflect suspicion that they're being led by the nose. Take the 'tradition' of teaming the rookie of the year up with the dead last, for instance. You know all those floating bonuses and demerits we keep?"

Mizuki nodded.

"We use those to keep the last couple students within a few points of each other, and to nudge one or the other into last place depending on how likely a candidate for genin the Rookie actually is, despite his scores. The lowest graded student will be a student we think is ready to be a shinobi, given adequate guidance, if the rookie of the year is likewise deemed ready. Conversely, the lowest scoring student who just can't hack the lifestyle gets bottom slot if the rookie is imbalanced or too immature."

Iruka opened up the bottom drawer, leafiong through several manila folders, before picking one out. "Take this group. First, the Rookie. Hyuuga Neji. On the surface, he's brilliant, but has a surly, resentful demeanor. Like most Hyuuuga he's an introvert, and arrogant. However, his psych profile shows that he's well trained to follow orders he doesn't like, and he has a streak in him intent on railing against impossible odds to meet his goals or orders. Note how that dovetails quite nicely with his other team mates. Higurashi Tenten is the daughter of an unwed gossip who, lacking in family techniques, took what she knew and had access to, tool use, to its logical extreme through sheer determination. Her style of ranged combat was intended to compensate for her lower baseline body strength in combat situations, and turned into something impressive in its own right. Then we have the third member of their team, Rock Lee. No talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever."

"I'd think he'd be a shoo in for a loser team," Mizuki commented.

"Going by his academy grades and practicals, that's understandable. But as far as his behavioral and psych evals went, he's got the attitude, the dedication, and the toughness, both physical and psychological. Given the right instruction," Iruka finished, "any deficits can be worked around or addressed.

"Counterpoint, this year's rookie and his team. Should they show they have what it takes to be genin when the crunch comes around- and Hatake Kakashi is able to lay down the crunch like no other, I can assure you- if they can manage that, they'll pass. But it isn't likely."

* * *

"Team Six, Tendo Ami, Uzumaki Naruto, Shiro Yukiko. Your jonin instructor will be Akimichi Chouza."

_Akimichi, huh? _Naruto wondered. _I wonder how closely he's related to Chouji?_

Naruto started to look in Chouji's direction, but instead found himself making eye contact with Ami, who was sitting next to him again after lunch had ended. She maintained eye contact with him for a couple of seconds before turning her face back to the front of the classroom. It was hard to say for sure, but she might have been blushing.

Making eye contact with one of his team mates brought to mind the other- that pale skinned and dark haired girl who always sat in the top row. She wasn't as cold as her name implied, but she came close. As far as Naruto could tell, not that he'd paid a great deal of attention to her, Yukiko didn't seem to have any emotional involvements at all. That even stretched so far as interpersonal relationships; as far as Naruto knew she didn't really have any friends.

There was an uncomfortable parallel with himself in this that Naruto didn't want to look at too closely.

"... Team Nine is still in circulation from last year. Team Ten will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji. Your instructor will be Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka checked of something on his list. "That accounts for everyone. Your instructors will be along shortly, probably within the next twenty minutes. Use this time to say goodbye to your classmates, since you likely won't run across them very often from now on."

"Am I early?"

Most of the class looked over to the door, to see the doorway almost entirely filled with shinobi. Specifically, one shinobi. A very big shinobi.

_Isn't a ninja supposed to be stealthy?_ Naruto wondered privately. _"How can someone that fat sneak around?"_

"Like this." A meaty hand clapped itself down on Naruto's shoulder. From the startled looks on the majority of the students' faces, it would seem nobody else noticed his approach either. Chouji, however, had sort of a smug look on his face.

Naruto looked back up at the jonin standing behind him.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" The man said, ignoring Naruto's growl at the name Uzumaki. "One of the basics of stealth involves not thinking out loud. I can't say I'm very hopeful for this team if you're the best it has to offer. Team Six, please follow me."

Meekly, Naruto got to his feet, followed by Ami a second later. Yukiko's expression didn't change as she got to her feet apathetically, and the three genin followed their new jonin sensei out of the room.

* * *

"Ah, sensei?" Asked Ami as they walked out into the academy courtyard. "What do we do now?"

"First, we get to know one another," Chouza replied. "We'll discuss ourselves over shabu-shabu at Suehiro's over on Cherry Street."

That thought brought a smile to Narutos face- although it wasn't teriyaki, shabu-shabu was still really good, and one of the meals that Takeru made fairly often.

"I don't much care for shabu-shabu," said Yukiko flatly, "because dashi tastes too strongly of kombu, and using just boiling water makes the meat taste washed out."

"You've likely only used number one dashi, then," Chouza commented easily. "Number two dashi is much milder."

"I don't like the flavor of kombu leaves in the first place, regardless of its strength," Yukiko countered, still with absolutely no heat.

"Then have something else. Or are you on some sort of silly diet?" Chouza asked thoughtfully.

Yukiko snorted slightly, and almost showed emotion. "Dieting is for idiots who are willing to wreck their bodies trying to get a boy's attention. Please do not lump me in with that sort of fool."

Naruto reflected that her steady, near monotonous voice was becoming very abrasive.

* * *

_Interesting,_ thought Chouza as they walked and bantered. _Uzumaki is getting annoyed with Shiro, Shiro is coming as close to sulking as a member of her bloodline ever does, and Tendo is trying her best to fade into the background. Let's see if I can draw Tendo into this._ Out loud, Chouza remarked, "Well, you're right about that. Dieting isn't very smart at all for those in our line of work. Thankfully Ami-san knows this quite clearly already, as anyone can see."

The barb was both grossly unfair, and just subtle enough to hit the girl where it hurt. Ami was probably the only one of the three genin hopefuls who would notice she had a little more body weight than the other two, but with teenaged insecurities...

...and then Naruto, completely oblivious of the insult, went and stuck his foot in his mouth. "Well, of COURSE Ami-chan isn't gonna diet- she's not dumb like Ino that way!"

_'Chan' is it?_ Chouza thought to himself. Of course, this honorific did nothing to ameliorate Ami's fury at the perceived slight to her weight. "I am NOT FAT!" she yelled, balling up a fist and punching Naruto in the arm. The boy looked bewildered at the reaction.

Chouza brought them to a halt outside the restaurant with a smile- he couldn't have timed this one any better if he'd tried. "Oh, look, we're here."

The meal was... a strained affair. Between Chouza's inflamatory provocations and the would be genin team cheerfully (or irritably, really) walking right into each barb, word trap, and instigation, the three genin were hammering themselves right out of the running for genin confirmation.

_And now, for the coup de grace,_ Chouza thought to himself. "Thank you, waiter. This will be separate checks."

Even Yukiko reacted to that. Between her team mates' exclamations of shock, she said in a slightly raised voice, "Sensei, we were under the impression that you were treating us to a meal."

Chouza rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking up toward the ceiling. "Funny, I don't remember saying anything of the sort."

The three genin looked at one another in dismay. True, he hadn't actually said he was treating them- really, he hadn't even implied it. But he was their instructor, wasn't he supposed to?

Of course, when the waiter gave the bills to the three genin, that was when the sparks REALLY flew.

"Hey, why don't you get charged for your meal?" Ami demanded. "You ate more than all three of us!"

Chouze smiled, and replied, "That's because I own the restaurant."

All three genin fell over themselves in cacophany at this revelation. Their competing protests and uncoordinated indignation made them hard to understand, but the general direction of their complaints was to know why he would make them pay for their own meals if he owned the place and could get it for free.

Chouza decided he had made them chase their tails for long enough; now, while they were disoriented, it was time to apply an old Akimichi specialty: overwhelm them so badly there was no hope of recovery. "Because it is NOT free for me. I OWN this business. When it gets a good stream of customers, I make a middling profit. If it doesn't I take a loss. By eating here I directly affect my own profit margin; this was a deluxe meal that did not earn me a single penny. In fact, it cost my business forty eight slices of prime grade beef, along with the dashi, the sliced vegetables, labor for my staff to prepare the food and clean the dishes, fuel for the hot pot... No, it most certainly is not free for me.

"Your problem- all three of you- is that you are holding tight to the mentality of being CHILDREN. Yesterday, you received your hitai ate. I know for a fact that your instructors explained to you what this entails- that you are all now adults, both in terms of priveleges and responsibility."

The three genin were still and silent now- it wasn't until now that they realized that the staf had deliberately ensured that no customers were within earshot of their table, and it was plain to see that at the entry, there were several people waiting for a table. One by one the three genin came to understand that their instructor was losing business just by having them here. "Often times adults will eat together and pay their own way. It's not just common, it's actually the norm, especially among coworkers- and make no mistake about it, we ARE cowrokers. I may be your superior officer, but we all serve Konoha, the Hokage, and Fire country first, in that order.  
"This team is supposed to be a retrieval team. How do you think- ah, our waiter is here." Chouza paused in his diatribe. "Let's not waste any more of his time- please pay for your meals."

The set up had been clean- Chouza had already lifted Ami's purse, and would have lifted Yukiko's as well, except she hadn't had one on her.

"My money's gone!" Ami exclaimed in dismay.

Yukiko blushed and looked to the side, embarassed. "My money is at home- I was going to ask if I could borrow from one of you two until tomorrow."

Naruto reached into his shirt and pulled out his wallet, counting the contents grimly, though he already knew what was in in. _For the three of us... I'm short by three thousand ryo,_ he thought. _I don't have enough money to pay for all of us._

"May I have a word with you?" Naruto asked the waiter. The two of them walked off about fifteen feet and began to converse in low tones.

Chouza was a jonin- a quick handseal under the table and he could hear the pair as though they were standing right next to him. That short of a distance was no match for jonin level surveilance techniques. "I can pay for Ami's and Yukiko's bills, but I don't have enough to cover my bill too. I'd like to offer my services, doing whatever you need me to do, to cover the remainder as free labor for up to six hours. I'm only short three thousand ryo, so that comes out to five hundred ryo an hour- not really a lot of pay at all. I'll work it tonight, tomorrow night, or whenever you need me to. I'm not afraid to work."

The waiter's eyes flicked over to Chouza, who gave an almost imperceptible nod. The waiter looked back at Naruto. "We can settle their bills now and hash out the details for your bill later, Uzumaki san." The words seemed forced, especially the honorific, but Naruto gave no sign that he noticed the faint dislike in the waiter's demeanor. He simply nodded, and the waiter accepted the money for the two girls' bills before walking off to the register.

"Alright, taken care of!" Naruto said with a smile.

Chouza cocked his head to the side. "For a team that is supposed to do retrievals, I have to say I am a bit disappointed. Such a team is only as stealthy as its clumsiest member, and if one member of the team is unobservant the whole team is in deadly danger." Chouza fished out Ami's wallet from his own vest, ignoring her outraged protests. "None of you noticed me taking Ami's money. A shinobi is always on duty; why would you ever let your guard down? And that's only the second problem you three suffer from.

"Konoha nin must guard one another's backs. It took me only a few minutes of conversation to have the three of you at one another's throats. Yukiko, your restraint was the most mature aspect of your behavior, but it still needs work, and you are far too passive. Naruto, your willingness to work to pay off your teammates' debts was also fairly mature, but too hastily resorted to. Didn't it occur to you to send an earth clone to one of their houses to retrieve money? Or failling that, to your own house?"

Naruto scratched at the back of his head sheepishly. "I, ah, I don't have that kind of range on it yet."

Chouza nodded thoughtfully. "You all have a bit of potential. But right now, you just aren't ready for the life of a ninja. You fail the screening test."

"Fail?" Naruto demanded. "We already PASSED our genin exam yesterday!"

"That exam merely tests whether you possess the knowledge and basic skills required of genin," Chouza answered calmly. "Every jonin instructor gives their genin team a test to determine whether their team is ready for the life and duties of being a shinobi. The fail rate is over sixty percent."

"So why didn't you tell us we were being tested?" Yukiko asked, her lips set in a thin and angry line. "It's not fair to us to spring something like that without even telling us."

"Fair?" Chouza snorted, waving over a busboy to clear the table. "Shinobi's lives all all about UNfair. Half the time, you don't even know you are in a fight until the first blows have landed home, and the other half the time you don't realize it until the fight is finished one way or the other. Ambush, entrapment, poison, and subterfuge are staples of shinobi combat. As a retrieval team, you three would be on the receiving end of more than your share of ambushes because you would be the ones invading enemy territory for retrieval of objects against at best partially known opposition and- if you are very lucky- in partially known terrain. Your team must above all others be alert at all times." Chouza stood up, stretching his arms over his head, popping out the kinks in his back. "But I guess that doesn't happen now. Uzumaki san, you and I will walk the girls home, because that is what gentlemen do. We will all meet in the morning at seven to give my assessment to Hokage-sama." Chouza paused as they started out the door. "Oh, and Naruto? I could use a dishwasher tomorrow night. Six hours is reasonable, in my opinion, and Friday nights are always busy for Suehiro's."

Naruto nodded glumly, before raising his head. "Yes sir."

There was no more conversation for several minutes, until Chouza broke the silence. "Shiro san, your house is across the west end, am I correct?" At Yukiko's quiet nod, Chouza added, "We can cut across the park, then, it will be faster."

* * *

It was after dark, now, and the park was deserted. A perfect place for an ambush.

Chouza reflected as Naruto and Ami sprang immediately to defend against the henge'd shadow clone, perhaps he'd made this too obvious. Yukiko froze up for a long second, and would have been hit full on by Chouza's clone had not Ami stepped in with a swipe from a kunai she pulled from a spring catch in her sleeve. The clone skipped backwards a step, still sticking to taijutsu for the moment, before launching a kick at speeds no genin could reliably dodge. Ami didn't try; as the kick struck home she turned into a park bench, the wooden slats smashing to flinders where the kick landed home. The clone retracted its kick and hurled its own kunai, ring end first, going for a knock out, but a Tsuchi Bunshin sprang up from the earth in front of her, crossed arms taking the hit for her.

Then clone after clone extruded itself from the ground, as Naruto attempted to flood Chouza's clone under a tidal wave of bodies. But the weakness of the tsuchi bunshin is that the user can only make one at a time, and Naruto had started his assault before he could really call up decisive enough numbers. Naruto was clearly expended chakra like water but the bunshin didn't slow in their pace of arrival, even as Chouza's clone struck out right and left, converting the clones into sod and clumps of mud almost as fast as they came, while dodging carefully aimed shuriken that Ami was using to the best of her ability to try and cut off the shadow clone's attempts to thin out the numbers of earth clones. As soon as Ami realized that the earth clones weren't going to dispel when hit by a stray shuriken, she started throwing them a lot faster.

The shadow clone hopped out of the slowly growing group of earth clones, before inahling quickly while making a flurry of hand signs. A mud wall sprayed out of his mouth to form around the group, cutting them off from the shadow clone and buying it some breathing room.

By this point, however, Yukiko had gotten her head into the fight enough to start contributing, and the clone's world started to spin oddly as she extended her numbing aura to encompass the clone's inner ear. Chouza raised an eyebrow at this. _Pretty advanced in her clan's techniquies- Usually don't see that application until they're getting ready for the chunin exams,_ he thought to himself. The clone took the standard route for dealing with genjutsu, an action that it paid for in full as a bolt of raw electricity burst from where Naruto had concealed himself near Ami, zapping the clone hard enough for it to dispel. The three genin looked around wildly, trying to identify where their attacker had gone.

"Where's Chouza sensei?" Ami said, eyes wide and searching.

"I didn't see what happened to him!" Naruto said.

Chouza stood up from where he had hidden himself. "Well, at least your response to this test was better than the last one. Not a great deal, but at least you covered one another's blind spots. Still, the clone I made should have been easily visible to all of you. You should have seen it coming." Chouza looked over at Naruto, who of the three genin was the only one that didn't even seem slightly winded. "What was that lightning technique you used to disrupt my clone?" He asked.

"Oh, that?" Naruto said, blinking. "Uh, that was actually my bracers I made. They ground out unfocused chakra pulses so that they can't disrupt the bunshin jutsu in the bracers, and channel that chakra into lightning chakra. It then aims the bolt as a feedback effect along to where the pulse originates from. I didn't realize they'd work even without the bunshin active, though- guess I forgot to deactivate them when I last used the jutsu."

Chouza left no expression on his face. "Well, that covers my examination of the three of you. Go ahead and get home, now- I'll present the Hokage with my assessment in the morning, just as I said before." Chouza walked off with no further words to the three of them.

"What a jerk," Ami grumbled angrily. Naruto nodded his agreement.  
"He's right though." Yukiko said. "He's being as kind as he can to us right now by making sure that we know what we're in for before we get killed for not being prepared."

Ami looked down at her feet, her face hard to read in the darkness. "Hey, Ami chan, what's wrong?"

"I screwed up. I didn't even hit him once, just your earth clones," she replied. "And since when can you do that, anyhow?"

Naruto shrugged, not really seeming to care. "Eh, something I learned pretty recently. Never got the chance to use them in the academy."

Ami's face fell a little more- both her teammates had special techniques already, and she only had the academy three. She'd more gotten in the way during the fight than anything, and it had been her wallet that Chouza sensei had taken to prove a point. She knew what the real problem was: She was the dead weight on this team.

* * *

Naruto walked the two girls home, despite Ami's protests that it wasn't necessary. As she watched him walk away, she briefly considered walking inside the house, but then decided against it, instead opting to walk around for a while and try to clear her head.

She felt horrible.

The evening had been a roller coaster ride of stress, agitation, discomfort, anger, and fear. What was worse, she knew deep down that most of what Naruto had needed to pay for was her meal. Yukiko had only ordered some appetizers, and had Ami just kept an eye open while they walked instead of letting herself be baited into anger at her teammates, she and Naruto could have split the cost of Yukiko's food easily. Instead, Naruto was working six hours tomorrow night for free, and her inadequacy had cost him more than just the free labor, it had cost him his shot at being a genin for another year. And even if she wasn't the sole cause of it, Ami was pretty certain that had it not been for her- that had ANYONE else from their class been on the team in her place- the team probably would have done well enough to pass.

_Just kids,_ she thought to herself. _We've been playing at ninja, learning the jutsus, practicing stealth, studying histories and tactics, but it was never real to us._

Ami pulled up short as she realized she had wandered automatically to the academy training ground. In the light of the street lamp, multiple posts stood with human heads and torsos. Almost robotically she reached down towards a glint in the grass; a shuriken lay in the grass that had been overlooked by its owner. Her hand moved in the smooth, side-arm-to-inside motion with a deceptively slow seeming throw, and the sharpened bit of metal blurred from her spread fingers to lodge exactly where she'd aimed, just three inches from the sternum, directly between what would be the second to last and last ribs.

The instructors had always labelled this a kill, even going so far as to instruct them to look for heavy bleeding of very dark blood, indicative of having fully lacerated the liver.

Had this been a person, they'd likely already be going into shock, folding over, dark blood spilling everywhere into shining black pools in the lamp light.

_Is this what I haven't understood all this time? These targets will be people, someday soon, kill or be killed, and my hands will be stained with blood not just once but over and over, unless my blood stains someone else's first._

Did she want to quit?

_No. _The answer came almost before she'd even fully formed the question in her mind. She might not have been rookie of the year, but she was fairly good at what had been taught at the academy. And another year wouldn't hurt her much.

_Chouza sensei was right. I wasn't ready to be genin yet,_ Ami thought. _But next time, I intend to be._

Ami turned on her heels and began walking again, this time with purpose, towards the Hokage tower. _And I'm NOT going to let my failures drag Naruto and Yukiko down._

* * *

End Chapter Two

* * *

AN: Wasn't as smooth, perhaps, as I would have liked- I lost a week and a half of work when Windows destabilized on me; else this would have been out about two weeks ago.

Hope you all enjoy the chap.

Ja mata.

-AXENOME


End file.
